Stephen Dinan

Federal judge blasts unvaccinated jurors as ‘selfish and unpatriotic’

A federal judge in Florida lashed out at unvaccinated potential jurors this week, calling them "selfish and unpatriotic" after he was forced to postpone a trial because he'd wanted to refuse to seat anyone who hadn't gotten a COVID-19 shot.

January 20, 2022

Family of migrants including an infant found frozen to death at U.S.-Canada border

A family of four migrants from India were found frozen to death on the Canadian side of the border last Wednesday after getting separated from the larger group of migrants they were with.

January 20, 2022

Supreme Court denies bid to force faster ruling on Texas abortion law

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a request from abortion clinics to speed up action on a case in lower courts challenging Texas's new law restricting abortions after about 6 weeks of pregnancy, and allowing private citizens to enforce the law by lawsuit.

January 20, 2022

7-year-old migrant girl drowns in Rio Grande

A 7-year-old girl from Venezuela drowned Tuesday after she was swept from her mother's arms as they tried to sneak into the U.S. by crossing the Rio Grande.

January 19, 2022

Supreme Court rebuts claims that maskless Gorsuch chased Sotomayor from the bench

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a statement Wednesday shooting down a report that she was working from home because a colleague refused to wear a mask during oral arguments.

January 19, 2022

Tim Perry out as chief of staff at ICE

Timothy Perry is out as chief of staff at ICE amid questions over the deportation agency's plummeting arrest numbers.

January 18, 2022

Supreme Court challenges Boston’s refusal to fly Christian flag

The attorney for Boston's government ran into a buzz saw Tuesday at the Supreme Court as the city defended its decision to block a group from flying a banner on a city hall flagpole because of the group's Christian affiliation.

January 18, 2022

40% of guns traced from crimes in Central America came from U.S.

Thousands of firearms manufactured or bought in the U.S. end up being used in crimes in Central America, according to an audit released last week that found about half of the weapons are smuggled into the region and the others are exported legally and "diverted" into criminals' hands.

January 17, 2022

Republicans prepare their wish list for filibuster-free Senate

Democrats may be paving an eventual path to stiffer ballot standards if they trigger the "nuclear option" to carve out a special exception to Senate filibuster rules to approve voting rights legislation.

January 14, 2022

Supreme Court blocks Biden’s vaccine mandate on big businesses

The Supreme Court put President Biden's coronavirus vaccine mandate for large companies on hold Thursday, shutting down the policy just days after it began to take effect.

January 13, 2022

Soaring tax revenue helping constrain federal deficit

The first three months of fiscal 2022 are in the books, and the numbers show the federal government's deficit has gone from the catastrophic levels of last year back to the merely grave situation pre-pandemic.

January 12, 2022

EXCLUSIVE: House GOP probes historically low ICE arrests after Biden policy changes

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are probing the "historically low" rate of arrests of illegal immigrants by ICE, saying it appears the Biden administration, unwilling to abolish ICE outright, is instead paring down the agency through policy memos.

January 12, 2022

Dems have voted for more filibusters than Republicans as power devolves into divisive partisan tool

If Sen. Charles E. Schumer were still the minority leader, it's a good bet he'd be enthusiastically using the filibuster to stop Republicans' priorities, not fighting to eliminate it. He's voted more than 500 times during his tenure in the Senate to sustain a filibuster, data from GovTrack shows.

January 11, 2022

Visa program for illegal immigrant crime victims riddled with fraud, audit finds

Homeland Security's special visa program to grant legal status to victims of crime is plagued by fraud and mismanagement, according to an inspector general's audit released this week that found the department doesn't even know how many of the visas are issued.

January 11, 2022

OSHA vaccine mandate takes hold as Supreme Court justices deliberate legality

America's bigger businesses are now required to know their employees' coronavirus vaccination status and should be demanding mandatory mask-wearing on those who haven't received the shots, after the Biden administration's most expansive vaccine mandate took effect Monday.

January 10, 2022

Supreme Court justices dip into politics of COVID-19 vaccine mandates

It seems even the Supreme Court isn't immune from COVID-19 politics.

January 10, 2022

Supreme Court justices challenge Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate on businesses

With a fervent eye on omicron and the surging number of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, the Supreme Court struggled Friday with whether the Biden administration can try to slow the virus through an unprecedented set of workplace vaccine mandates.

January 7, 2022

Outgoing Virginia AG rules state can’t revoke Equal Rights Amendment ratification

Virginia's legislature cannot rescind its ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring said in an opinion this week, acting just days before he leaves office.

January 7, 2022

New DHS data reveals border jumpers no longer predominantly Mexicans

The old model of illegal immigration along the southern border was shattered in 2021, according to data released by the Department of Homeland Security this week that shows the demographics of the typical border jumper have been completely rewritten.

January 5, 2022

Illegal immigrants test limits of Second Amendment in case now pending at Supreme Court

Even as the Biden administration moves toward leniency toward illegal immigrants on so many fronts, there's a line the government hasn't crossed: Possessing a firearm is still a serious offense.

January 3, 2022